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[bendube]

I’ve been working with the (full grown) team that we purchased this winter. They perform pretty amazingly on the ground, but have some quirks when working. I think a bit of this is just their conditioning.

These guys seem to experience the “homeward bound effect” a lot more severely than other animals that I’ve worked with. They’ll work at a nice, mellow pace going in one direction in a field, but try to sprint and lunge through the last 50 feet when they’re going the other way. Just this morning, the nigh ox was the big culprit. When I stopped him about 60 ft away from the end of the row, he actually pawed the earth in anticipation of what he was about to do.

I’ve tried battling it out with them, making them stop every 5-10 feet, but winning can be a little ugly, and I wonder if I’m just making them associate the end of the row with stress, which might make the problem worse.

Some things I’ve tried:
-Always ending work sessions after going in the “right” direction.
-Never resting them at the wrong end of the field- waiting until they’ve gone a little in the right direction and settled down, before giving them a break, so they learn that breaks come when the work at a steady pace, not when the reach some specific location.

Anyone have ideas of how to deal with this?

Thanks

[oxspan]

Ben, What type of work had they been doing before you got them ? Was it field work or “out and back home work” ?

[Baystatetom]

Sounds like you are doing it right.
~Tom

[dominiquer60]

I once dealt with a horse that was wicked barn sour, I would end work in the good direction, and though a pain, I would reward him by unsaddling and grooming away from the barn and we eventually calmly walked back to the barn from there. I didn’t take long for him to chill out and be fine with this change of routine and eventually worked fine in both directions and was good going back to the barn. I know it is a horse not an ox. but if you mix things up sometimes you may find a more desirable behavior.

Good luck.

[j.l.holt]

We are dealing the animals that trained by repetition. Same as with horses and dogs. Same thing with either.. Sounds they are used to going out and back. Like with a scoot to get one load of wood. or throw off a load of barn cleanings. Keep mixing things up should do the trick. How about just a wake around the loop?

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